There are several ways to synchronize the movements of your animated props to audio. Two of the more popular ways are MIDI control and audio control. It’s not always obvious which method is best, so I’ll go over a few of the pros and cons of each.

If you have any kind of MIDI-controlled prop you should check out this video. It shows you how to create an animation sequence for your prop. The video uses a skull and Reaper software, but you could apply the technique to any MIDI prop.

Do you want to add computer control to your haunt or show, but you’re not sure which controller to choose? Wolfstone has an overview of several types of controllers and the advantages / disadvantages of each.

Yard-light motion sensors are a cheap and easy way to add some automation to your haunt. Just hook up power to the sensor, hook the output to an outlet, and you can control anything that runs on 120VAC. But what if you want to control something else? It turns out it’s pretty easy to modify these motion sensors so the output just acts like a normal switch or button. Here are some of the things you can control with a modded motion sensor:

LED spotlights

Any Halloween prop with a “Try Me” button

CD / MP3 player

Fog machine

Air canon

PowerPoint presentation

Basically if you can control it with a switch or a button, you can control it with a motion sensor.

Here’s a project that uses the serial port on a cell phone to let you talk to your props and gadgets via SMS. It’s not the fastest remote control in the world but it will let you control things from a distance.